


Heart in Hand

by Clorixi



Category: Cardcaptor Sakura
Genre: Crack Taken Seriously, Duel Monsters, Gen, I know i tagged general but there is some one sided tomoyo/sakura if you squint, dubious understanding of how duel monsters work, even the author doesn't know, the heart of the cards, this is basically an alternate telling of how she gets the fight card, title is a poorly concealed reference to, where's meiling?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-04 01:02:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17888582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clorixi/pseuds/Clorixi
Summary: Duel monsters is the cool, popular card game that everyone plays, Sakura herself included. She isn't very good at it, but she doesn't need to be good to have friendly matches against her brother or Tomoyo.Then the whole Clow cards thing happens, and suddenly duel monsters is a little more than a simple card game.Or, an AU where everything is the same but duel monsters is a thing and Sakura figured out they have a little magic she can use.





	Heart in Hand

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not the first person to think of crossing over card-based animes and I won't be the last, probably.

Penguin Park at night was, technically, as charming as Penguin Park in the morning. Much of that charm was lost on Sakura, though, since she was much more worried about the reports of a girl going around and beating people up near the park.

Positives and negatives, she guessed.

Currently, she and Kero were loaded into the back of Tomoyo’s van. The other girl had disappeared into a heap of clothing several minutes ago muttering about the perfect bow and had yet to emerge. A few days ago they had determined that the girl attacking people had to be a Clow card. Kero was certain it was the Fight, a card that liked physical battles and could make its user into a skilled martial artist. That sounded like a really useful ability to have, though Sakura didn’t like the idea of hitting people with the intention of hurting them.

Kero pointed out that the cards and any bad guys wouldn’t feel the same way about hurting her, so she shouldn’t worry. There was a certain logic to that, but Sakura still felt a touch uneasy. 

Before they could start searching for a potentially dangerous girl, they had to wait for Tomoyo to ‘complete the look’.

This time around, the battle costume Tomoyo designed was on the simple side. A plain white shirt with small pink bows on the back and pink accents on the short sleeves made up the top, with a belt across the middle of it as a ‘focal point’. A large puffed skirt with a pink outer later and a slightly longer light blue inner layer that bled out to white covered her legs to her knees. High pink boots made their way up the rest of her visible legs. 

The magic key that marked her out as the Cardcaptor rested on its usual chain on her wrist. The little bird-like charm matched the outfit pretty well. Sakura quite liked this battle costume. 

Tomoyo finally unearthed herself from a pile of stockings, clutching a necklace and a light blue ribbon. “Here, Sakura-chan, this is for you.” She said, handing over the necklace. “Kero, this ribbon is your accent piece. I’ll put it on for you.”

The little lion fluttered over, hovering obediently in front of her hands. “I thought you were looking for a bow?” 

Tomoyo sighed, “I seem to have misplaced it. Sakura would have looked so cute too…”

As they talked, Sakura examined the necklace. It had to be handmade, because it was a little clay image of Kero’s face. “Tomoyo-chan, this is so cute!” She worked the little clasp on the chain open and put the necklace on. 

Tomoyo smiled at her. “It looks even cuter on you.”

Sakura laughed, a little embarrassed. Kero flew over to the open doorway and gestured them over. “Let’s get going already, before Fight finds a new victim.”

The trio entered Penguin Park on its east side and fanned out a little, staying within eyeshot of one another. Whoever saw the card first was supposed to call out to it then run directly towards Sakura. If Sakura saw it, she would simply challenge it to a duel. It was one of their more simple plans, but Penguin Park wasn’t that big, so it would probably work fine.

They were only a few minutes into the search when Sakura noted a strange movement in the trees above her. She gripped the key that rested on her bracelet.

“Show yourself!” She called out. 

Silence greeted her demand. Then, the trees moved again, and Syaoran Li appeared on a branch in his green battle costume. 

He tilted his head in a greeting of sorts. “So you sensed the Clow card around here too.”

She had done no such thing, but Sakura wasn’t about to tell Li-kun that. 

He wasn’t waiting for a response anyway, but rather jumped off the branch to land beside her. Kero and Tomoyo both noticed and made their way over, Kero looking annoyed while Tomoyo seemed more focused on getting Sakura perfectly in frame of her camcorder.

Kero opened his mouth (most likely to insult Li-kun, Sakura just knew it) but before he could get a word out they were interrupted by the arrival of a strange looking girl. Li-kun immediately fell into a battle stance, arms tight to his side and legs spread apart to balance himself. “It’s here.” he said, a bit obviously.

The card’s manifested form looked as if it was cosplaying a video game character from Road Brawler. The biggest indication that this wasn’t just a normal girl was the fact that its entire color-scheme, including its skin, was a sort of tealish-blue. 

“Sakura, challenge her before he can!” Kero said. Li-kun made a noise almost like a snort. “Do you even know how to fight, Kinomoto-san? I’m a black belt.”

“Uh, sort of? I’ve been dueling with Clow cards, and a duel is sort of a fight, so…”

He didn’t drop his stance, but turned to look at her, confused. “Dueling?” he said.

“Yeah.”

Li-kun blinked a little. Before he could respond Sakura turned her attention back to Fight. It was glancing between them.

Sakura tried to copy Li-kun’s pose, but knew that she probably just looked silly. “Hey, Fight!” she called to it, trying to sound confident. Its eyes, somewhat cold and powerful, snapped over to her. Oddly, the thing that intimidated Sakura most was the fact that the card looked as if it was a teenage girl. Having an older girl size her up for a fight was nerve-wracking.

“I challenge you to a duel!” she said, a bit lamely. Fight looked her over, head tilted slightly to the side. Then the card stared at Li-kun as it slipped into a loose stance, arms at its sides and legs apart. Clearly, it had dismissed her as being someone worth fighting, which… actually stung a little.

Li-kun still hadn’t dropped his own stance. He looked a touch smug that the card was paying more attention to him now. The tension suddenly hiked up, like Li-kun and Fight were going to move at any moment. Sakura couldn’t let Li-kun fight the card though. She had no doubt that the boy could win, which was sort of a problem since she needed to collect the Clow cards too. If she didn’t act soon, they would start. She needed to convince Fight that she was a real opponent, but how? The only thing Fight might recognize is the other Clow cards, and—

Oh. Well, that was a thought at least. She didn’t even need to look for the right card. Sakura focused her energy and plucked a card out of her deck holster.

“H-Hey! Fight!” Sakura called. When the card turned its attention to her, she held up a Clow card between two fingers. Fight’s eyes widened in surprise at the Power card.

“You recognize this card, right! It’s Power! I dueled it and beat it fairly in a fight!”

Its expression barely changed, so it was hard to tell, but the card seemed interested. A little more, then, to seal the deal.

“This card is proof that I’m a worthy challenge! Dueling me will prove your strength.”

“What are you doing?” Li-kun grumbled. “There’s no way Fight will go for that.”

Fight thought about something for a few more seconds, then nodded at Sakura. Li-kun sucked in a disbelieving breath while Kero chortled. 

Sakura grinned, just a little. “Uh, give me a moment to get ready?”

The card didn’t acknowledge her words, but it also didn’t move, so she took that as consent. Sakura gripped the charm a little tighter.

“Key that hides the power of the dark, show the form I need now! I, Sakura command you under our contract! Release!”

The light was near overwhelming beneath her feet. Circles with strange writing appeared, small at first but rapidly growing in dimension until they surrounded her completely. The key charm that was easily enclosed in her hand grew until she could just wrap her finger around its length, then continued growing. The material warped up and around her wrist, following up her arm up to the elbow and settling there. The new key was still pink with winged motifs on the very edges, but its new form…

“A duel disk? Ancient, powerful magic, and you ask it to become… a child’s toy.” The look Li-kun was giving her could peel paint.

Sakura laughed for lack of anything else to say.

It apparently was the wrong thing to do, because the ire in his expression somehow increased. “How is that even possible! You must be corrupting the magic somehow, or… you’re just that bad a Cardcaptor!”

“What do you know!” Kero shouted over her shoulder. “Even ancient magic can acknowledge when a modern tool suits the job better!”

The Card in front of them tilted its head to the side and sighed, tapping its foot a little. The noise jarred Sakura horribly, reminding her that they were sort of in danger. At least the Fight was patiently waiting for them to finish arguing.

Sakura shook her arm out to adjust the weight of the dual disk (not that it wasn’t always perfect, but it had scrunched up the fabric of her sleeve and pinched a bit), and pulled her deck out with her other hand. The Fight immediately perked up, looking more alert than it had all evening. 

Li-kun could not frown harder if he tried. “You really think you should be taking this one on, Kinomoto-san?” 

Kero growled at him for the perceived insult, and he elaborated, “It’s not that you’re not strong, but this is literally the Fight card and you lean on magic and cards more than physical strength.”

“If I lose, I lose, but I have to at least try, right?” Sakura reasoned, more to convince herself than to convince Li-kun.

Tomoyo cheered somewhere behind her. “You can do it, Sakura-chan!” Kero whooped, taking up the cheer with gusto.

Sakura sighed a bit, touched but embarrassed by their antics. She placed her deck at the opening lip of the duel disk, watching Fight as she did so. The Fight seemed to know that the moment her deck entered, their match would begin. It hardly moved at all, eyes locked on her cards.

Here went nothing.

The cards clicked into place with a burst of pink and white light, and Sakura barely breathed before Fight launched into the air, flipping over to aim a kick at her head. She jumped backwards to avoid it, pulling cards from her draw slot as she did. She spared a second to glance at her hand, then threw a card onto her play-field.

“Heed my call, Fly!” Sakura commanded. Immediately, the pink and white lights swirled from the card out into the air, coming to form over her back. Two white wings formed near her shoulder blades, and Sakura threw herself up into the air.

Fight could jump very well, but not nearly as well as the Jump card, and it certainly couldn’t fly. It looked up at her, seeming a bit cross that Sakura was out of punching range. 

She bought herself some time to think, then. Great. Sakura looked at the cards in her hand. Five of them were duel monster cards (two spells and three monsters), and the other two were Clow cards. A quick glance confirmed that the release for the next draw was still locked, counting down with three minutes left to go.

The duel with Power meant that Sakura already knew that duel monsters could match Clow cards in a fight. Sakura eyed her monsters. There were no major hitters here, but maybe…?

Something whizzed past her head, shaking Sakura out of her thoughts. Fight hefted another chunk of rock in its hand, then reared back and launched it forward. Sakura yelped and rolled herself to the side, avoiding the projectile.

No more planning, then. Sakura grabbed one of her monster cards and threw it onto the disk. “I summon Starlight Moth in attack mode!” The disk let out an electronic beep, and after the brief light show a medium-sized moth appeared near the ground. It was dark blue in color, oddly fluffy with small white dots twinkling on its body and wings. 

Somewhere behind her, Li-kun, in a completely monotone voice, said, “What.” 

She didn’t have time to respond to him as Fight immediately redirected its attention to her moth. The Clow card seemed almost confused for second, before shrugging its shoulders and squaring up. Fight was a blur as it darted forward, aiming a punch square at insect. Starlight Moth fluttered in distress, but took the hit directly, bursting into pink light that flew back into the duel disk. Its card lit up as well, before lifting off the field and placing itself in her graveyard area.

Pain flared in Sakura’s chest and she cried out, pressing a hand into it. The pain wasn’t physically there, she knew, but the reaction was subconscious more than anything else. Her duel disk flashed up a 2000 on the small side panel, which reduced rapidly to 1650. 

“Don’t let it get to you, Sakura!” Kero called. He waved his little paws in the air, shadow-boxing at Fight. “You can still take it down!”

“Although,” Tomoyo said, “had she left Starlight Moth in defense mode, she could have used its special ability to lower Fight’s attack power when it was destroyed.”

Oh. Sakura hadn’t thought of that.

“Oh.” She said out loud. 

Li-kun sounded like he was having some issues. “Lower its attack… What does that even mean!? How do you lower a Clow card’s attack power?”, and then after a moment he added, “Did she summon a duel monster!?”

Kero tittered a laugh, striking a holier-than-thou pose and waving a paw at him. “Cardcaptor magic is powerful stuff you know, and these duel monster cards have a little magic in them as well. Don’t you worry about it though, little guy.”

His hands clenched and Li-kun made a strangled noise in the back of his throat, but otherwise he didn’t speak again. 

That was for the best, since Kero would only tease him without answering any questions. Sakura resolved to explain things to him better after this duel was over.

Fight was reaching for another chunk of rock. Sakura grabbed three cards from her hand. 

“Heed my call, Windy!” The card landed on the summon field. A breeze suddenly whipped through the park as soft green light rose from the card, taking the shape of an elven woman. Windy smiled at Sakura as it winded around her. “Protect me from the rocks, please!” Sakura asked. 

The card didn’t acknowledge her in any verbal way, but the winds picked up, blowing her hair into eyes. Sakura wished that Tomoyo had found that bow after all. Fight launched the rock hunk at it, only for it to be pushed away by the wind.

Windy picked up the next hunk it threw and launched it right back at Fight. The card looked surprised and didn’t manage to completely dodge the rock, which smacked against its right arm. Fight opened its mouth, but no noise came out. It looked like it hurt.

The other card in her hand was pressed into a small slot under the field area. “Activate: Spell card Accellight!” This spell would let her call a 4-star warrior-type monster to the field. Mentally she picked the card she wanted, and a duel monster appeared on her play-field.

Dawn Knight appeared on the ground, immediately pointing her sword at Fight in a clear challenge. The monster wore heavy looking armor, with a red scarf around her neck and goggles over her eyes. Between the scarf and her long brown hair, which were being stirred by the wind, she looked really cool.

The third card still sat in her hand. Sakura didn’t really like trap cards, but as things stood, Fight could overpower most her of monsters. She had to go with the only plan she had.

“I’m placing one card face down,” Sakura said as the card appeared below her feet, “and that’s all.”

Now she just had to hope Fight would take the bait and not attack the face-down card.

Luckily, Fight really was predictable. It hadn’t even looked away from Dawn Knight from the moment she had been summoned. As soon as its foot went flying at Dawn Knight, Sakura flipped her face-down card over. As she did so, her Starlight Moth card shimmered and faded out of her graveyard. Sorry Moth, Sakura thought to it. You’ll be back soon. 

“Crystal Veil, use Starlight Moth’s energy to protect Dawn Knight and damage Fight!”

A shimmering field of crystals appeared around Dawn Knight. As Fight made contact with it, a flare of light went up and sent the card flying backwards. It would only be a half of Starlight Moth’s attack damage, but it would still sting quite a bit. 

Two things happened at the same time. First, the timer on Sakura’s draw pile chimed that it was ready. Second, Fight flipped back onto its feet and somehow threw itself at Sakura.

Sakura drew the card, knew what it was without looking, and slammed it onto her play-field. 

“Wood, heed my call! Restrain Fight with roots!” 

Trees creaked and groaned as roots suddenly thrust out of the earth and shot towards Fight. The card had no way to redirect itself mid-air, and was caught fast by the restraints. 

“Dawn Knight, now! Attack Fight directly!”

The monster charged forward immediately, aiming the flat of its blade at Fight’s head. The Clow card could only watch as the attack closed in and landed, knocking it out in an instant.

Sakura didn’t waste any time. She held her hand out towards Fight. “Resume the guise you were meant to inhabit, Clow card!”

Another light show. Fight exploded into ribbons of magic and light, first thrown outwards then rapidly condensing into a card shape. When it was over, the Clow card flew over into Sakura’s hand. She grinned up at Windy, then over at Dawn Knight. “Thanks for your help, everyone! You can all dispel now.”

Dawn Knight saluted her as she faded away, her energy returning to the duel disk. Windy chimed like a bell as she faded away too. Sakura just barely remembered to lower herself to the ground before Fly dispelled as well back into its true form. 

“Nice job, Sakura-chan! You looked so cool, dueling from the sky like that.” Tomoyo said, looking a little star-struck.

“Thanks, Tomoyo,” she replied. Sakura glanced over at Li-kun, a little nervous to see his reaction to her duel.

Li-kun had some duel monster cards in his hands that he was staring at as if they could give up their secrets.

“Ah, Li-kun, do you play duel monsters, too?” Sakura asked.

He thrust the cards into his pocket and glared at her, face slightly red. “As if I have time for games! Some of us take this role seriously, Kinomoto-san.” He spat.

“O-oh. Right, haha.” Sakura took a step away, avoiding his eyes. “Uh, see you at school?”

Li-kun didn’t answer. When Sakura found the courage to look at him again, he was already gone.

Kero huffed. “What a sore loser. C’mon Sakura, let’s go celebrate another Clow card found and captured.”

She nodded and followed him back to Tomoyo’s van, which would take them home.

**Author's Note:**

> my friend sharkbait drew some fanart for this work, which you can find on her tumblr here: http://sharkbait-is-dead.tumblr.com/


End file.
